


Never Winding Roads

by KyeAbove



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Aged Down Character(s), Aged Down Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts), Aged Down Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts), Alternate Universe, Birth By Sleep Rewrite, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Rewrite, Evil Apprentice Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Gen, M/M, No Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Past Relationship(s), Past Teen Pregnancy, Trans Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts), Wayfinder Trio (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28392585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: Xehanort is just a shred kinder and Eraqus was just that much more a nostalgic fool. It was a world view that would cost him his apprentices and his two decades of lies.
Relationships: Aqua & Eraqus & Terra & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Eraqus & Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Terra & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Eraqus & Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Eraqus & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Eraqus/Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Lea/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Never Winding Roads

**Author's Note:**

> This story is AU in several ways that are obvious from the tags and summary and in some ways not so much. The biggest change is that the timeline is more condensed down so that in the main timeline Eraqus and Xehanort are only in their late 30s instead of old men. As well, Ven is of this time period, with a stand-in grandfather taking his place in any vague Union X references that do pop up.

**~15 Years Ago~**

* * *

Eraqus loved to the point of deception. He had faced hardships not seen for keyblade wielders for a generation. Not since the days of his grandfather's youth. His grandfather suffered more for more. Eraqus less, for less. 

Only, he was a fraud. Unlike the keyblade wielders of old, he could have returned home any time. He could have stopped sleeping on street corners, scavenging for food from trash and strangers. He'd been a coward all this time, unable to give up his fears. He had only had the freedom to face the nightmare of his life with the blade and the courage to face death with the sword. And the blade seemed to say: If you are like this, you are not meant to die.

But, because he was a coward, he had been the target of his own lies. By his own hands. And his own hand, on his own body. He was a monster, he was a fraud, he was a deceiver.

He was so good at lying it made him laugh at the mere thought. He could lie and cover all the time. He was a good liar, but the same truth was true all the time. 

He was here now. His home until shortly after he'd turned seventeen. At seventeen, he had dashed off in a panic, sneaking a ride into the starry sky. His precious burden hidden away from prying eyes. Eventually he'd been able to use his own glider to go from world to world safely but he never found peace. Now, he was twenty-two and forced to face his choices. 

Occasionally his overconfident steps stuttered. He would grasp the smaller hand clutched within his own tighter and whisper terms of affection under his breath. Was he making the best choice, returning? Why should he change, if he didn't have a better life to live? Why did it matter if he didn't have friends anymore? It felt as if it were an alternate universe. He was not in his own reality. His universe had never existed. 

Eraqus's perfect universe was one where he hadn't had to run in the first place. Where his little accident wouldn't have come with harsh punishment for all involved. He'd ran away because he was a coward. But he also ran to protect those who wouldn't get away with this transgression. Eraqus was a blue blood and wouldn’t be punished. Terra’s father easily would be. 

His choice was to face the consequences. An existence without joy. The life his own father had told him he had earned by being born a blue blood. This whole mess could have been his chance to change it all. Yet he had squandered every moment spent outside this world. 

He needed that time. It would be his to treasure in the trouble ahead. He needed to do his best to stay here, to fight for this one chance at happiness. He had to take it.

He needed to accept this fate. An existence without his own true self. This was his. 

Now that this decision had been made, his head spun faster than normal. He could not be seen without a smile on his face. He needed to be seen as confident and aloof. 

The streets of Scala ad Caelum were peaceful. It did nothing to calm Eraqus's nerves as he walked slowly to his destination. People stared. He hid his gaze and simply watched his little boy explore the world with his eyes.

Terra had been here before, briefly, swaddled up in sheets that Eraqus had pulled from his closet in a mad dance to cover up his unexpected mistake. He just hadn’t been able to experience the world as Eraqus got to. He had instead seen plenty of other worlds, coddled up to Eraqus’s chest as they’d dipped among streets. 

He now walked on his own more often than not. It was a time like now where Eraqus wished he could pick up Terra and hold him close. Instead he had to seem impersonal but caring to the people that could pass rumors. He had to be cold. He had to seem worthy of the mark of mastery. 

All of this was for him. For Terra. A rouge blue blood keyblader user was written off with a scoff, and grumbles that he could have done so much better in life. He'd met up with those sorts of people before, hiding Terra as best as he could. He was mocked and he mocked them in return. He could get away with that, but Terra would not. 

An unchecked child with a keyblade was far more noticeable and in so much more danger from both other keyblade wielders and villains alike. A child trained by a rogue blue blood would be seen as a threat. 

Eraqus hadn't meant to pass on a keyblade. Terra had fallen off a rocky ledge and his keyblade had been the only object long enough to pass down for Terra to grab to. Eraqus should have expected that being the son of two keyblade wielders, he would be worthy of his own. He should have known even a brief grasp on one would bestow one upon his son. 

He could have done so much to prevent this. He could have gone for help the moment his gut had started to twist in pain, and Terra would have either been his to keep in shame or shuttered onto a better home. He could have left Terra on another world and returned home like nothing had happened. He could have settled down on any world, and raised Terra safely, nobody none the wiser to the past. 

Eraqus hadn’t, and he had to live with that. 

His deepest fear was being separated from Terra, so he would lie. That would be his deception. His love. As he came up to the steps of his former home, the gate opening with just as much ease as it had been to leave it, he was entering with a prospective student. Nothing more.


End file.
